turtles

it’s weird, but I think they are cute.

I don’t get it, really. But I guess I think their armor is jewel-like. maybe on the same plane as a scarab?

I don’t know how I ended up with a pet turtle when I was a kid, but I did. Someone, I don’t think it was me, bought him from Woolworth’s. I named him Freddy the Freeloader, and I somehow became in charge of him. He ate turtle food, of course, but he also ate flies, lettuce and he loved tadpoles. So weird. So gross, but, I didn’t mind…

I had him for about a year and when we went away for the summer, I left him with my grandmother, and he didn’t do well. When I came back, his shell was all soft. I thought maybe he was molting or something like that. Anyway, he died, and we buried him in a shoebox, I think, and went out and bought Freddie II, who lived a while, but not nearly as long as Freddie I.

(Thanks to the Internet, I just learned that he had soft shell syndrome, from lack of calcium or insufficient sunlight.)

Anyway, that’s the sad story of the Freddies.

God only knows why people find scarabs interesting…

I don’t have a clue.

But just look at how pretty and the esteem we bestow on this little creature who rises from the… well, you know.

And no. I don’t get a commission. And no. I don’t want it or a new turtle.